But the ruthless character at the center of “Scarface,” director Brian De Palma’s 1983 gangster epic about the meteoric rise of a Cuban immigrant from dishwasher to drug kingpin, is more than just some bad guy. In him, Pacino found the perfect vehicle to say something about our relationship to power.

“With ‘Scarface,’ I must say, there was something about the preparation, there was something about the text, and Brian, working together with everybody, that I found that channel in myself,” the Oscar winner said. “I felt this is about something I really want to say.”

When she wasn’t being asked about her weight, co-star Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Montana’s wife Elvira, said that watching Pacino embrace his character, and not try to soften someone so vile and murderous, was something that has stuck with her for 35 years.

Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brian De Palma and Al Pacino attend the 35th anniversary screening of “Scarface” during the Tribeca Film Festival.Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

“What I learned from working with one of the greats like Al Pacino — one of the things that hit me the strongest, from the beginning, was watching him fiercely protect his character,” the actress said. “At all costs, without any sort of apology. And I have always tried to emulate that.”

“Being an artist, it’s really about presenting to people what is the truth,” she added. “Not sugar-coated.”

De Palma — who joined Pacino, Pfeiffer and actor Steve Bauer on stage — also explained why the film is so violent and, infamously, features 226 f-words.

“I had battled with the ratings board through a whole bunch of movies I had made,” he said. “This was our last skirmish. I kept on submitting versions and they’d say, ‘It’s an X.’ So I’d change it a little bit, took a few more things out. And I submitted it a second time and got an X. I submitted it a third time and I think they were upset about … the clown that gets shot.”

Fortunately for the filmmaker, producer Marty Bregman had his back.

“At which point I said, I’ve had it with these people, I’m not taking anything more out,” he continued. “I told Marty and he said, ‘We’ll go to war with these people.’ And that’s what we did.”